bronystormfandomcom-20200214-history
Building Worlds
"Building Worlds" is a song by Cloudsdale synthpop band the ALPS which first appeared as a single in 2014 before being featured on the album Nightmare Night. The song was written entirely by Naz. "That's my first attempt at an actual ballad ... It shows that I wrote sentimental love ballads way back when", Naz stated in his 2030 Playboy interview. Composition and sturcture The song was written during the voyage to the human world, but is not directly influenced by his experiences there. Naz stated that the song is about no one in particular, but rather someone that he idealized about. "I felt really damn lonely at the time, that's reflected in the first verse of the song. It's about someone I wanted, not someone I had," Naz said in the Playboy interview. The song opens with a fade in from a synth lead by Naz. The demo version (just Naz alone on synthesizer) from early 2014, does include the introduction, as well as an alternative ending. The song features a synth lead that the other two synth players (Frosty and Rainbow Speed) revolve around. The song also contains a piano deep within the mix of the three synthesizers. Recording and performance The song was recorded entirely on 27 March 2014. The ALPS attempted to record the song into a single take, but Naz realized this was near impossible to get to his liking and added overdubs later in the session. Naz later called the song "super rushed", adding that a dog can be heard barking during the "do we have a date" line. "I don't remember whose dog that was, or how that even showed up in the mix, but it did. Good luck not hearing that anymore." "Building Worlds" was a part of the ALPS repertoire during their worldwide tour in 2014. The group typically performed the song faster than the studio version, and Naz often sang it with barely suppressed laughter. On more than one occasion it was introduced as "Building Worlds Apart". Release and reception "Building Worlds" was released as a single, backed by Speed's song "The Gypsy Bard". The release took place on 21 April 2014 worldwide. In Amareica, "Building Worlds" topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for four weeks. With the success of the song, the ALPS established two records on the Hot 100: 1. The song had the biggest jump to the top position: number 27 to number 1. 2. It gave the ALPS three consecutive chart-topping singles, since "Discord" was replaced at number 1 by "Beyond Her Garden", which was in turn replaced by "Building Worlds". The three songs spent a combined total of 14 consecutive weeks at number 3. This is the only time an artist had three number 1 singles in a row. "Building Worlds" became the ALPS' fourth Cloudsdale number 1 and their third single to sell over a million copies in Cloudsdale. The song was included on the ALPS' Nightmare Night album in July 2014. The album was titled after the song until the last second. The change was explained by Frosty: "We felt that more of the album had the darker feel of Nightmare Night than the lighter feel of Building Worlds, so we changed it. I think either title is a mistake, we should have thought of something else." Personnel * Naz – lead vocals, synthesizer, piano, hoofclaps * Frosty – bass synthesizer * Rainbow Speed – synthesizer, keyboard * Teal – drums